The remarkable dissociation chemistry of 2-aminoxyethanol ions NH2OCH2CH2OH+studied by experiment and theory

A mechanistic analysis of these processes using the CBS-QB3 model chemistry shows that the molecular ions undergo a 1,4-H shift followed by a facile isomerization into the ion-molecule complex [HOCH2C(O)H+]⋯[NH3] which acts as the reacting configuration for the five exothermic dissociation processes. Analysis of the D-labelled isotopomer ND2OCH2CH2OD+, in conjunction with our computational results, shows that proton-transport catalysis may be responsible for the partial conversion of the m/z 60 glycolaldehyde ions into the more stable 1,2-dihydroxyethene isomer HOC(H)C(H)OH+.